Notre Dame, Ind. -
The 12th-ranked Notre Dame women's lacrosse team made it two in a row over ranked teams on Sunday afternoon as they scored early and often in downing 19th-ranked Cornell, 20-7, at the Loftus Center on the Notre Dame campus.

The Irish were led by senior Meredith Simon who had her second four-goal game of the season and added three assists to equal her career high with seven points in the win. Notre Dame also got three-goal games from Abby Owen, Meghan Murphy and Lauren Fischer in the win.

The victory improves Notre Dame to 3-0 on the season while Cornell falls to 0-2. The Irish go to Florida for a pair of games this week versus Duke (March 10) and James Madison (March 14).

Lindsay Steinberg led the Big Red with three goals and two assists and Allison Schindler who had a goal and four assists for her five-point game.

The Irish spotted the Big Red a free-position goal just 1:17 into the game and then scored 10 of the next 11 goals to blow the game wide open at 10-2 on the way to a 14-4 halftime lead.

Fischer, Kassen Delano, Crysti Foote and Simon twice made it 5-1 with just 6:02 gone in the game. That chased Big Red goalkeeper Ashley Charron who failed to stop any of the first five Irish shots on goal.

Murphy gave Maggie Fava a rude welcome as she got her first of the afternoon just 23 seconds later, making it 6-1. Kristen Smith stopped the Notre Dame run with her only goal of the game just 8:53 into the game to cut the margin to 6-2 before Murphy, with her second, Fischer with two more and Owen made it 10-2.

Steinburg scored her second of the game for Cornell to make it 10-3 only to see Murphy, Mary McGrath with two and Owen score four more to make it 14-3. Allison Schindler made it 14-4 with 1:54 left in the first half to close the scoring.

Jaime Quinn, Ashleigh Smith and Steinberg scored three of the first four goals of the second half, but it was all the Big Red would get on the afternoon.

Fava finished the game in goal for Cornell and surrendered 15 goals while making eight saves. Carol Dixon played the entire game for the Irish, making 11 saves while giving up seven goals on the afternoon.